Seems like most summers I never get around to blogging. Happened again this year. Last post was 3 months ago. Today I finally have some free time, or rather, I'm letting some other things go because I want to blog. (The lawn is only half mowed, and the kids have been watching movies and playing nintendo too much today, beets and pickles need canning, I haven't finished preparing my talk for church tomorrow...)
Troy's 6 brothers and 3 sisters (and some of their spouses) have gone backpacking every summer for 10 years now. 2 of them have been on every single hike. Troy has made it to 7 of them. They usually go for 3-4 days, and have been in the mountains of Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Montana, California (Yosemite), and Washington. This week, they're in the Olympic mountains in Washington state, on a trail right by Forks, Washington (where the Twilight books and movies are based. I'm waiting to hear of any vampire or Bigfoot sightings! More realistically though, they might see a bear. The ranger station required them to take bear canisters.)
About 4 years ago, the next generation was finally old enough to accompany them. This year they have 6 "kids" on the hike. 3 cousins, and Alana, Hanna and Seth. It's Seth's first time. His hips aren't hardly big enough to strap the backpack hip belt around--to help carry the weight of the pack. I'm a little worried for Seth, b/c this time they're hiking onto different campsites each day. Which means carrying their packs every day for several miles. Usually, they hike in one day, make base camp, do day hikes the next day, then hike out. I hope it's a good experience, and that he likes it despite the hard work. I'm glad my sister in law is on this hike, to be a motherly figure for him if he needs it. She was helpful to Alana and Hanna the first time they went. This is Alana and Hanna's 3rd hike.
Here they are just before they left. Troy's pack was already in the van. He was antsy to go, and I wanted a picture first. Thanks to Grandpa for sharing the packs for us to use! (Hanna only had a regular school backpack her first year. She couldn't carry much--just her clothes and sleeping bag. But even then, her shoulders were sore at the end, without the hip belt.)
Here we are near McDonalds in Prosser, where we met up with Troy's brothers and kids.
How many people do you think can be squished into a phone booth?
What you can't see are the 4 people behind these guys.
This is actually everyone who was IN there (except the tall guy on far right). EIGHT of them.
Alana, Hanna, Seth, Aspen, Uncle G, Uncle J, Cousin S and Cousin D.
On our way home, with only half my kids for the rest of the week.
Don't worry, they didn't ask to do this until we stopped and checked the mail at the end of our driveway.
These pictures are actually from a couple years ago in Montana I think. I don't remember if I posted them already or not. They said the water was FREEZING cold, but they just had to play in it anyway. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of this week's hike after they return.
In 10 years, some interesting things have happened on the hikes. Snow, horrible mosquitoes, losing a sleeping bag in a raging snow-runoff stream-turned-river, hiking all day to find out the lake they hiked to had a road they could have driven on to get there, one uncle packing up a portable DVD player so they still watched movies at night, and another uncle nearly having his foot trapped under a shifting boulder at the top of a rocky ridge. I'm glad they're all still alive. (I said "NO!" when they talked about climbing glaciers without training.)
